BENTON, Ill. - Antonio Ferto-Castorena, 31, of Maywood, Illinois, was sentenced on Thursday, April
21, 2022, to a total of 168 months in prison after pleading guilty for arranging to have sex with a
minor online and traveling to pick her up in the Southern District of Illinois. Antonio
Ferto-Castorena, a citizen of Mexico, was also ordered to pay restitution and serve 5 years of
supervised release.
According to court documents and evidence presented in court, Ferto-Castorena used an online chat
application to meet a teenage girl. Ferto-Castorena engaged in sexual conversations with the minor.
On February 5, 2020, Ferto-Castorena drove from Maywood, Illinois, to Teutopolis, Illinois, to pick
up the minor from school. School employees notified the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office who
apprehended Ferto-Castorena prior meeting the minor.
As part of his plea agreement, Ferto-Castorena admitted to producing child pornography of a minor
who was located in California, using an online chat application. The images were located on
Ferto-Castorena’s cell phone.
The investigation was conducted by the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office, Effingham Police
Department, and the FBI Springfield and Chicago Field Offices.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ali Burns.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006
by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and
Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to
locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and
rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit
more information about internet safety education, please visit
www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
